Twenty-Five Things that Caught My Eye Today: Religious Freedom Court Victory & More (June 26, 2020)

Join us Wednesday at 3 New York time: What’s Next for America? – a Sheen Center for Thought and Culture/National Review Institute event with Gloria Purvis and Louis Brown

1. Federal judge blocks COVID-19 restrictions on New York religious services

Thank you, again, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty!

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4. ‘I honestly think racism is demonic’: Despite critics, EWTN’s Purvis not afraid to call out injustice

At some point, someone made a deliberate decision to enact policies that on their face may not have explicitly said, “We’re going to harm this community,” but their intention was to do so, and the way these laws and practices are followed has most definitely led to that.

5. Noah Rothman: Does Tim Scott’s Pain Matter?

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7. I am part of the system that killed Cornelius Frederick. Here’s how we change it.

8. Lela Gilbert: The Threat of Genocide Darkens the Future for Nigeria’s Christians

…there is mounting evidence that the present government of Nigeria is somehow complicit in the Islamist groups’ assaults. While tens of thousands of Nigeria’s Christians have been killed in recent decades, countless more have been mercilessly raped, maimed, disfigured, and disabled. And the displaced are innumerable.

9. Send special envoy to protect Nigerian Christians says former congressman Frank Wolf

10. Paul Marshall: Turkey Is Moving Toward A Neo-Ottoman Regime With Calls To Convert Hagia Sophia

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12. Churches in six states damaged by violent protests

13. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the WSJ: America Doesn’t Need a New Revolution

We have barely four months to figure this out in the old American way. To figure out how to contain Covid-19, which we haven’t yet done, because—I dare to say it—old lives matter, too, and it is old people as well as minorities whom this disease disproportionately kills. To figure out how to reduce violence, because the police wouldn’t use guns so often if criminals didn’t carry them so often. Perhaps most pressing of all, to figure out how to hold an election in November that isn’t marred by procedural problems, allegations of abuse and postelection tumult.

Who knows? Maybe there’s even time for the candidates to debate the challenges we confront—not with outrage, but with the kind of critical thinking we Americans were once famous for, which takes self-criticism as the first step toward finding solutions.

14. Our old friend (formerly of these parts) Katrina Trinko: Is This the Stupidest Time in America’s History?

15. DC Mayor being sensible, unlike, say, Andrew Cuomo, on statues: “We need to have a reasonable conversation… not have a mob decide that they want to pull it down”

16. Lift the national security waiver on Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan’s government is suspicious of any independent religious activity and maintains a large surveillance apparatus that monitors believers at home and abroad. Citizens who appear to be overtly religious are considered extremists by the authorities. Even Islam, the majority religion, is highly regulated.

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18. Peggy Noonan today

19. Politico: Why Biden Is Rejecting Black Lives Matters’ Boldest Proposals

Activists have pointed out that over the past month, as thousands took to the streets in hundreds of cities, Biden’s policy platforms on criminal justice and policing have not changed on his website. In a letter to Biden’s campaign last week, more than 50 progressive groups criticized his response to the mass protests, calling on him to incorporate policies crafted by the Movement for Black Lives.

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21. The Wall Street Journal: Nearly a Third of Pilots in Pakistan Have Fraudulent Licenses, Government Says

22. Fort Worth Couple Married 53 Years Dies Of Coronavirus Less Than An Hour Apart, Holding Hands

23. Good Morning America: Pediatrician now a mom after adopting 10-year-old patient and his younger sister

24. St. Louis Catholics gather nightly in Forest Park to pray for statue to stay

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